Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-09-25
BALLOONRY.
The QUEER COLLECTION OF a Leg
HORN saOPMAN.
The History Of Aeronautics caaintly
Told in Pictures Painted
on Pottery.
Now York Tlmos.1

Angelo, q little brown man under
great Basquish cap, who had been our
lackey for three days in the good city
Of Leghorn. viva bio We have
come at last to an Italian city without
a monument seaport without ba-
silic 0r museum a city OF Turks and
hardy sailors, who sell their wares in
the streets under the sun, and not in
lack-lustre cellars. rs if ashamed OF
| traffic"
We liked Angelo because he was our
servant A; something we could not have
in New York, where we are known and
people laugh at our grand airs, and we
let him grumble at having had to come
with us to curiosity-shops. Angelo
spoke wisely of Leghorn. 1t has no
runs, but cotton and indigo no pa
laces, no princes. The sea air is excel
lent, the wine quite French, and
the cigars are the best of any
seaport in Italy. Angelo had been
there the year before, in the
train of Chiiian nabob who only re-
CURED from him to take bis visiting
cards to pretty girls of the Armenian
quarter, and Angelo passed his time on
! the wharves telling stories; lolterer
enough to take notice OF grease spot
On boatman's jacket and to count the
stones of the Colonella gate. He had
made us happy to have thrown off like
heavy cloak our mania for collecting.
In every other city of that great land
Of antiquities we had wandered in out
of-the-way streets to dusty bric-d-brac
shops. Now, We had begun to live, but
the mania came back suddenly with
thought that the unfortunate Count
d'Hoym, who hanged himself in little
inn near Dresden after making q SUI
perb collection of books, had been a
book-fnder in Leghorn. Angelo got
orders TO look for fellow-maniacs, and
bis countenance fell, but he found in
the Via Grande, en- Rdndnt, a furniture
dealer who wore turban, spoke
French. was talkative, and offered to
show his collection of faience, special,
historical, and, as q collection, rarer
than a day in June.
We found in him an interesting per-
son lie had always been collector of
rarities and, naturally, had squandered
two or three fortunes in books, coins,
pottery, and furniture. He told us that
he had come to Leghorn, where the
French Consul was his kinsman, be-
cause in France he had lost his friends,
the dealers in rarities, for having adj
vised others 20 buy at the auctioneers',
and not made friends of the auction
GERS because they have to be friendly
with the dealers. Nadar and CASTOR and
Albert Tissandier had put him on the
track Of making collection OF ce-
ramics illustrative of the growth of bal.
loonry. 1t began with plate descrip-
tive Of the first ascent, made on the
Dist of November, 1888, in the gardens
OF the Muette, IN the presence Of the
Hauphin, by FIlatre dc Rozier and the
Marquis dArlandes. The plate is de-
signed like the narrative Of Faujus
de Saipt-t ond; the balloon is in green
and red colors, has the royal initial be-
tween two sun faces, and the travellers
! bow with flags to an admiring crowd,
but their Montgolfere was deco
rated with all the luxury Of which the
eighteenth century was capable and
Tie plate is simplicity itself, with only
a line around its edge.
The second plate of the collection
shows the yellow-and-white balloon of
Robert and Charles, who made an as
cent from the Tuilleries on the lst OF
December, 1888. making use of hydro
gen gas for the first time. Charles was
the fashionable physician of the day.
They threw their hats to Delavoiplerre,
who wrote a Quatrain to the effect that
he would keep them as relics, as their
heads would be crowned with glory
and they would have no need OF them.
In the picture on the plate the
aeronauts are waving their flags;
the hat Of one OF them is in the
dir, and falling to the ground There
are other plates that appear to have
been made to commemorate the use of
hydrogen gas, some with violet and
yellow, others with white and orange
colored balloons among them one
with flag on one side OF the car and
globe with the arms of France on the
other, and over q pretty landscape.
The aeronaut holds an indistinct object
surrounded with smoke and fire, where
by ore may identify the plate with the
ascent of Festu Brissy, who went from
the Luxembourg on June 13, 1886, and
told of his testing positive and mega
tive electricity with an iron rod.
Blanchard, who went up from the
Champ de Mars on the ID of March,
in 1884, TO go to La Villette, came
down at Billancourt. There is plate
showing the balloon, round like ball.
the upper part orange-celored, the
equator blue, and the appendage white,
covered with a net supporting car
with wings and a parachute; another
and q similar one, without wings to
the car or parachute; another
with two aerOnauts In tue car,
rowing like boatmen. The ascent
from Little Chelsea, near London, Dc
tober lG, 1874, is treated with the usual
fidelity to details. The balloon is
without net or parachute the car is
round and has veDtilator. There Is
one aeronaut only in the car, although
Blanchard was accompanied by Shell
don but an explanation OF the dis
crepancy is in the fact that Blanchard
had to make station at Sunbery to
let off Sheldon. Blanchard got the
freedom Of SO many cities that
he made it point Of honor
to be tireless in his experiments.
he made an ascent at Douai March
%, 17S6, in half gale, and on
his way dropped letter to the journal
de- Paris that fell at st. Amand. There
was dish made at the factory of the
latter place TO celebrate the incident.
Ii is the most artistic of the collection.
The balloon is in q medallion, in light
yellow and orange colors. the car in
blue and black, the aeronaut in yellow
colored clothing. The effect is as
pretty as may be.
The factories of st. Amand, Movers,
Strasburg, Lille, Sinceny, Desvres, and
Hesdin brought out a great number of
balloon-plates, but they were not all OF
historical value, the design in most OF
them being only a chance ornament,
end not made with regard to facts. In
one Of these the balloon has net sup
porting car with ropes only around
It's centre, so that its extremities are not
held, and the men in the car grasp the
ropes with one hand and wave flag with
the other. The balloon is in black and
ochre colors the safety-yalve in red (;
the aeronaufa have blua coats and black